Brandy ClarkHighline Ballroom
7:30 p.m., $18-$25
Brandy Clark is a Nashville songwriting veteran who had given up on a solo career, until the labelhead of a tiny Dallas-based label Slate Creek Records, Jim Burnett, helped push her to release her own album. 12 Stories was practically met with glee by critics--the songs tell stories that are nuanced, often bleak takes on American life, but they're peppered with hope and determination. Clark has an excellent grasp on her own throaty alto range, and the resulting combination has been setting the country music scene ablaze. Expect heartfelt lyrics delivered with wry passion and an undercurrent of humor. Her first single "Stripes" was a raucous, catchy number that bemoaned a cheating ex, but stopped short of jealous murder because of a distaste for prison fashion--redneck rage meets southern decorum, the perfect match. -- By Caitlin White

Gavin Russom + Traxx + Mr. BlackLaurenThe Glasslands Gallery
11:30 p.m., $10
Gavin Russom isn't just a former touring member of LCD Soundsystem and a synthesizer fetishist renowned for his technical acumen. He's also a DJ. capable of marrying multifarious avant-garde inclinations with the functionality required to really tear up a dance floor, from Albert Ayler to Nguzunguzu. Russom takes a break from his ongoing Crystal Ark band project to headline this night, also featuring the hardboiled styles of Traxx. -- By Aaron Gonsher

Jane Lynch54 Below
Friday & Saturday, 8:00 p.m. daily, $75-$145
You've loved to hate her as coach Sue Sylvester on Glee these many moons. When she played Miss Hannigan in the recent Annie revival on Broadway, you loved to hate her then, too. Now she's offering another chance to love to hate her. Or perhaps in an as-herself switch, she's offering the opportunity to love to love her. When Lynch was younger, she worked on her comedy technique in Chicago area church basements. See how she does in this much swankier NYC basement. -- By David Finkle

Little Dragon + Lawrence RothamTerminal 5
Friday & Saturday, 8:00 p.m. daily, $30
Not many bands can make a dreamy dance track about the cycle of marriage and infidelity, but not many bands are Little Dragon. "Ritual Union," off their third album of the same name released in 2011, may be one of their most perfect songs, but that doesn't mean that the same triumphant feat of meshing the sad with the happy hasn't been accomplished several times over the band's four releases. The Swedish synthpop group have got soul oozing from beneath their bouncy beats. This type of dance music that makes your soul dance is better experienced live, though they still sound pretty great blaring through your headphones, too. -- By Brittany Spanos